So Barbara Mikulski, in one of her last major acts as a senator, has declared herself the 34th vote in favor of the nuclear arms pact with Iran, thereby (for the moment, anyway) giving the president all the votes he needs to sustain any veto of any anti-deal legislation emanating from that august body.

While majorities of both the GOP-controlled House and Senate are poised to vote against the agreement, supporters of the multinational accord that aims to curb Iran's nuclear weapons program are also hoping to get the 41 votes needed to filibuster the bill and prevent it from even getting to a final vote in the Senate. Secretary of State John Kerry said the administration will continue to try and push support for the deal past the 34 votes they now have "until the last moment." "Thirty-four votes are obviously enough votes for the president's veto to be upheld," Kerry told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "That is not satisfactory for us. We do want to try to go further. We'll continue to persuade."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

This is good to hear, because if there ever was an issue on which to take the learned advice of Mr. Winston Wolf seriously, it's this one. First of all, the monkeyhouse on the other side of the Capitol hasn't weighed in yet, and that's likely to be a virtual avalanche of low comedy. Second, bobble-throated rookie Senator Tom Cotton (R-Mongering) is still on the loose. This week, he's in Israel, huddling with honorary House member Bibi Netanyahu, and continuing to declare himself the president of Me. Mean

"Today's meeting only reaffirms my opposition to this deal," Cotton said in a statement after the meeting. "I will stand with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel and work with my colleagues in Congress to stop this deal and to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself against Iran and its terrorist surrogates."

Most Popular

Third, we all know the Democrats in the Senate, right? I am not going to count any vote as a vote cast until I see the CSPAN toteboard ring it up. There is a lot of money and a lot of power lined up against this deal, and it's not going away. There are still enough of the usual Democratic suspects – Heitkamp, Manchin – who have yet to declare themselves and who might see the Mikulski decision as one that gives them a free vote against the deal. That's how momentum can change. And I'm not sure if I trust some of these Democratic senators to be winter soldiers on this deal any more than I trust the Libidinous Visitor to keep the promise he made to the Republican party today.

Meanwhile, of course, the rhetoric on the other side is making for superb entertainment. For example, Big Chicken has lost his shit entirely.

And on Wednesday, he said the consequences for the deal rest with Obama. "I believe that the American people are going to look back on this and say this is the single worst thing this president has ever done and every death Iran causes is now on Barack Obama's head."

Meanwhile, the frontrunning Libidinous Visitor is simply making it up as he goes along.

"You know, there is something in the Iran deal that people I don't think really understand or know about," the real estate mogul said. "And nobody is ever to explain it that if somebody attacks Iran, we have to come to their defense." Trump added, "And I'm saying this - that includes Israel? And most people say, yes. So, if Israel attacks Iran according to that deal, I believe... that we have to fight with Iran against Israel."

Anybody who thinks anything is a sure thing in a political climate where a guy who says stuff like that is rising in the national polls is a sucker.